February 2nd, 1980 tape on which Ted Bundy talks about Mike Fisher’s dedication to his conviction in the murder of Caryn Campbell
Audio With External Links Item Preview
Share or Embed This Item
February 2nd, 1980 tape on which Ted Bundy talks about Mike Fisher’s dedication to his conviction in the murder of Caryn Campbell
- Publication date
- 1980-02-02
- Topics
- Ted Bundy, Judge Lohr, Mike Fisher, Caryn Campbell, Elizabeth Harter, Frank Tucker, Milt Blakey
- Item Size
- 10.9M
Bundy starts the tape by saying that this is the second tape he made on Saturday evening, February the 2nd, 1980, in his cell in the Orlando County Jail. On this tape he can be heard talking about Mike Fisher and the experiences related to Fisher... “The end of the last tape, I ended by relating to you my arrival at the Pitkin County Jail at the basement courthouse, at the Pitkin County courthouse in Aspen, Colorado”...
And then he says he has to shut down to watch “Monty Python”... But then the tape resumes and he is heard saying that the next contact he had with Mike Fisher was confined to the courtroom: Fisher testified in a preliminary hearing before Judge Lohr in the Campbell case...
“And while this doesn’t have anything to do with Fisher, I think it’s interesting if you read the transcript of the preliminary hearing in the Campbell case, how thoroughly he was discredited as an investigator. This is chiefly with respect to the rather amateurish way in which he handled Elizabeth Harter [Wildwood Inn guest and witness who failed to identify Bundy at the pre-trial hearing], who was allegedly the kingpin of the case: she was a woman who said she saw a man or men standing by elevator one evening at Snowmass, Colorado, on the evening that Caryn Campbell disappeared. It was a year later, when she returned to Snowmass for the same type of convention they have, that a photo display was shown to her and she picked up my photo as being the man standing by the elevator. You have to compare, to really appreciate how badly Fisher handled this situation... you must compare the language and the information in the Campbell case with the testimony which actually came out at the preliminary hearing. Basically, unusually, I guess, Fisher grossly exaggerated the statements made by Mrs Harter with respect to her photo identification and the set of circumstances which gave rise to that identification. Of course, when Mrs Harter was called in Aspen to make an identification, she failed to identify me... She also said that she had never told Michael Fisher that she was sure of what she was seeing and what she had seen, it was dark, she never got a good look at the man she had seen, that she was some 40 ft away from the man she had seen, and that the photo she picked out, she picked out as only remotely resembling the man that she had seen and she could not form an opinion that the man in that photo was exactly the man she had seen...
“Of course, the representation Fisher must have made toward getting the information in the first place is far different."
"The embarrassment suffered by the prosecution at that preliminary hearing as a result of Fisher’s half-hazardous, vague investigations, is the worst I’ve seen in any case that I’ve been the object of. Plus the bottom line of that handling of Miss Harter was that she not only failed to identify me in the courtroom – that is she did not identify me in the courtroom, but in fact identified the under-sheriff who had accompanied me from Utah to Aspen just a few weeks before. The name of the under-sheriff was Benmeyers by the way.
“Anyhow, a law enforcement official of questionable character, he had held a number of jobs, he had been in a variety of law enforcement agencies throughout his career, and there were a number of rumors, most probably unsubstantiated of course as far as I can say, concerning his conduct in the various agencies that had employed him.
“Interestingly enough, the last position he held before coming to Aspen was... before coming to the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office as under-sheriff... was of chief of police in Grand Junction, Colorado, where there had been a series of murders of young women... And my understanding is that it took a great deal of pressure... and there was a failure of his department to solve these murders... I don’t believe that was the sole reason of him leaving...
"Benmeyers himself was not effective in the investigation in the prosecution of my case, other than the fact that he was identified as most resembling the man that Mrs Harter saw the night of Caryn Campbell’s disappearance."
“I saw Fisher on numerous occasions: most in the courtroom, in Aspen, during the many months that I attended the pre-trial hearing there... The only occasion when he testified that I can recall was the occasion of the preliminary hearing. But it seems as though he was always present, whispering in the ear of Frank Tucker, the district attorney delegated to try the case for Fisher... Or sitting somewhere in the front row of the courtroom. It was clear he had a personal interest in this case. And I had been told, although I can say this from personal experience, that he had developed something of a close friendship with the former fiancé of Caryn Campbell. I always got the feeling that despite his rather laidback manner, his rather non-law enforcement demeanor, that he was deeply, deeply devoted and dedicated to obtaining a conviction of me in this case.
“After the preliminary hearing in Aspen, of course, there were numerous contacts with Michael Fisher which I will relate to you as I go on this tape... In many ways... I don’t know... certainly I had something of a dislike for him, because obviously, from where I stood... he did not seem to be equipped to handle the job that he had taken on for himself. It’s hard for me to describe that feeling any further... I wouldn’t call what I felt for him as a form of pity... that’s just not what I’m trying to say, but I just felt when I looked at the man and listened to him and watched him, I couldn’t believe that he was actually someone who had been delegated with the serious responsibility of a serious investigation of a serious criminal case. Certainly appearances are deceiving, but in Fisher’s case, his appearance, I think was reflected in his ability...
“After the day that I arrived in Aspen, Fisher asked me if I wished to talk to him. He and I never spoke directly again until I had been captured after my escape from Aspen jail in June 1977... I never saw him back in the jail area at the Pitkin County Jail where I was being held. I rarely saw him in the sheriff’s office. Mainly because the prosecuting attorney’s office where he worked was in a building maybe 15 yards away from the courthouse itself.
“But there is no doubt that whether he was experienced or not, whether he had the ability or not, or whether he was a policeman or a law enforcement officer or just someone who fancied themselves as a law enforcement officer... There is no doubt he had an active and major role investigating the Caryn Campbell case.
“I believe he was present... a peeping-tom policeman... No I believe he was present at the autopsy of Caryn Campbell, although I can’t say for sure... I wish I’d known if he was present at the scene shortly after her body was discovered... I know that he examined a number of items in evidence or trace materials... One time a vehicle rented by a friend of Campbell’s fiancé was examined for dirt and other debris, which may have indicated whether Campbell was in contact with that vehicle. I know for instance that he tried to track down a number of suspects other than myself, and this would be reflected in the reports that you’ll find”.
And Ted seemed to be concerned with the things Fisher was doing during the period of time before Ted became a suspect in the Campbell case: “I know that he took a hair sample, sat in my car... As far as I know he came to take my statement...
“He did a great deal of investigation, specifics of which I’m not familiar, but I believe that one time he represented to me that he and another investigator checked every hotel and motel in the Aspen vicinity to see whether there was someone like me who fit my description who registered there”.
“I wish I had known everything he had done and that might be of some value to me in that case.”
Bundy then also says that he knows that Fisher traced down his credit cards and came up with a credit card that Fisher believed placed Bundy in Glenwood Springs, Colorado on the day when Caryn Campbell was last seen [according to press reports, police had discovered that Bundy used a credit card on Jan. 12, 1975, in Aspen, the day Caryn Campbell disappeared from her hotel room].
And Bundy then says that he believed Fisher also traveled back to Michigan, to the area where Caryn Campbell was from, and that Bundy’s discovery records indicated that Fisher sent out hundreds of letters to different law enforcement agencies inquiring about the Campbell case... “Many many letters to agencies followed up the lead on different suspects. No question he was chief investigator and he engaged in enormous amount of work in that case, both before and after the time I became a suspect. This portion should be reflected in many of the documents I collected in Colorado. So one cannot fault him for being diligent, being amateurish but diligent in pursuit of solving the Caryn Campbell murder”.
Bundy is then also heard saying that Fisher had no substantial case in the Campbell murder, and Fisher had “expectations, the unrealistic belief that given enough pressure of some sort, that I’d give him the easy way out, that I would confess to whatever it was that he wanted me to confess to.
“I think it’s interesting to know that following my arrest in Pensacola, Florida, in February of 1978, that he and Milt Blakey, special prosecutor from Colorado assigned to the Campbell case, immediately flew to Pensacola and were present while I was being interrogated by the police in Pensacola. But he [Fisher] never showed his face, I never knew he was there... or whatever made me aware of his presence there. Later when I was transferred to Tallahassee he too went to Tallahassee and was present during...”
Bundy ends the tape by saying that Fisher was absolutely convinced, in his own mind, that he was responsible for Caryn Campbell’s murder.
And he is also heard, right before the tape ends, teasing that the real him would not be captured on those tapes...
I received this tape from Rob Dielenberg, who had obtained it from David Von Drehle's archive. The tape had been recorded originally by Ted Bundy for authors Steven Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth who were in the process of writing a book about Bundy ("The Only Living Witness").
- Addeddate
- 2021-11-04 21:36:13
- Identifier
- nam_apap213_bundy_tape4
- Scanner
- Internet Archive HTML5 Uploader 1.6.4
- Year
- 1980
Open Library